Car torched on Osoyoos Indian Band land

Oliver fire crews responded to a raging car fire early Wednesday morning on Osoyoos Indian Band land.

The Oliver Fire Department got the initial call to McKinney Road at Black Sage Road at 5:18 a.m., where

“I wasn’t personally there, but from what I saw, yes, it looks like it was fairly engulfed in fire by the time the crews arrived on scene,” said spokesman Rob Graham.

It’s unclear how the fire started and why the car had been at that spot in the first place.

Oliver Daily News reports the car is suspected stolen and ditched, but Graham said the RCMP officer he spoke to indicated the owner of the vehicle had been contacted, and that person had left the car at that location on Christmas Day for some reason, intending to return to it.

“I did see that report on ODN, but I hadn’t had any contact from them regarding that from the fire,” he said.

“The initial information I got from one of our officers on scene was that he had spoken to a person who owned the vehicle, and they had to leave the vehicle where it was, whether it broke down or whatever happened, they had intended to come back and get it, and somebody took it upon themselves to torch it.”

Graham said there was “definitely not” anything salvageable from the car, which fire officials returned to at 9 a.m., after reports the fire had flared up again.

“When they arrived on scene again, I heard on the radio they didn’t see any smoke, so they just quickly checked it over.”